the what, why, when and how to conduct exit interviews

Why do people resign from your clinic?   If you don’t know why people are leaving, the brain drain will just keep perpetuating which will make it even harder to attract, let alone retain, top talent at your place.

You need to ask the questions to find out what’s going on (or not going on) in your clinic that’s behind people leaving.  That’s what this episode is all about – helping you ask the right questions so you can do something about the brain drain at your veterinary clinic.

Why do top performing vets, nurses, techs and support staff leave a veterinary clinic?

If you listened to Dr Francesca Brown back in episode 29, you’ll have heard her talk about how it costs a clinic between 2x and 4x a departing employee’s annual salary to replace that person.

The thing is, you can’t stop the staff turnover bleed at your clinic if you don’t know why they’re leaving in the first place.

That’s why you absolutely must conduct exit interviews.

Knowing why staff are leaving in the first place will help with both future attraction and retention of top veterinary talent.

Veterinary Clinic Employee Onboarding

Hopefully you’ve got an onboarding system in place at your clinic – that’s where all new hires follow a precise roadmap about how things work at your place:   all new hires are “inducted” – they know what your clinic’s standard operating procedure is across a whole gamut of different things – for example, hit-by-car drop offs, what to do when a nametag is lost, how to apply for annual leave, where to find ABC and XYZ, blah, blah, blah.

Everyone on their first day or first couple of days is given driving instructions on how to navigate the various systems at your clinic.   They’re shown how to log onto your computer system.  Given an email address that’s theirs.   Given a security card and they’re shown how to arm / disarm the alarm.   Basic stuff but stuff no one should have to ask “how to” about.

That’s onboarding.   Off-boarding or exiting should follow a standard process.   Including an exit interview.

Exit interviews are part of offboarding process

Conducting exit interviews with staff leaving your veterinary clinic can help you figure out what your clinic is already doing well, and what areas need attention.

Well-conducted exit interviews can also give you insights on the veterinary sector based on the employees’ expectations of your clinic, in terms of remuneration, benefits, and other key criteria.

Also, a well-conducted exit interview can provide an opportunity to ensure each veterinary professional leaving your clinic leaves on a high note, feeling appreciated for their contributions and respected for their feedback.   You want both parties to feel good about each other – with no bridges burned.

You both want to be able to bump into each other at conference with smiles … not where you’re each dancing around the edges of the room hoping you don’t bump into each other.

Best practice Exit Interviews

Create an exit interview policy – make it an SOP – a Standard Operating Practice

Firstly – decide that exit interviews will be adopted.  From this point onwards.   For every single departing employee.

If you’ve never conducted an exit interview and/or you you’ve no idea on where to start, start today by outsourcing – and while this is being done you can start implementing a process to bring back exit interviews in-house.

Most recruitment agencies or HR consultancies should be able to conduct an exit interview for you.

Having a formal policy regarding exit interviewing is an important part of clinic culture.   Why? Because it demonstrates a wish to improve and an interest in employees’ opinions.

If one of your clinic’s values is about respecting and valuing all employees, then including such a policy in your offboarding or exit process shows departing employees that “integrity and respect are engrained in all aspects of your clinic.”

Decide on the format of the exit interview

There are many variables to consider when deciding how to conduct an exit interview:

Do you want it pre-, post-departure or a combination of both?

While some clinics choose to conduct exit interviews before employees leave the clinic, other clinics elect to interview employees post-departure.

A pre-departure interview is easier to schedule, especially if you want to conduct it face-to-face.

However, post-departure interviews can make for more honest feedback.

You can also implement a combination of both:   before an employee leaves and then a few months after they’ve left.

If you choose to conduct the interview before the employee leaves, pick an appropriate time.

Here at VetStaff we recommend holding the interview about halfway between the announcement of an intention to leave and the actual departure—after the initial rush of emotion has died down, but before the employee has checked out mentally.

A post-departure interview can be conducted several months after the exit.

Do you want to do it in-person, over the phone, or web-based?

Many exit interviews are conducted in person, but a face-to-face interview isn’t always the best option.

Sometimes a telephone interview may elicit greater honesty than face-to-face meetings but the flip side of that – which I don’t agree with – is the additional cost of in-person interviews is not justified.

Online and web surveys and questionnaires are also a popular option.   These ensure that everyone gets asked the same questions, data can then be aggregated and use of time is efficient.

However, these methods don’t allow for one-on-one rapport, or the opportunity to ask a follow-up question based on someone’s answer.

What about DIY vs a third party external interviewer?

An in-house HR or Practice Manager will likely know how to conduct an exit interview that addresses some of the unique concerns specific to your clinic.

However, an external and independent interviewer, may get more honest responses from employees who’re concerned about preserving positive relationships with former bosses and co-workers who might serve as professional references.

Further – like reference checking and interviewing, since conducting exit interviews is a skill that requires framing questions correctly, eliciting valuable responses, and refraining from making the employee uncomfortable, the expertise of an experienced external, independent interviewer can be helpful.

Do you want to conduct one or multiple interviews?

Our recommendation is to conduct several exit interviews at your clinic.

Yes – it costs more to do this – but when you factor in the 2x to 4x cost to a clinic of the departing employee’s salary can you afford not to truly find out what’s going on?

When you opt to conduct more than one exit interview with each staff member, you can use several different modalities.

For example, your veterinary clinic might ask an exiting employee to fill out a survey, but then also hold a face-to-face meeting to draw out more open-ended responses.

You could also choose to hold an in-person meeting while your employee is still with the clinic, followed up with a survey a month or so later.

Conducting multiple exit interviews can reveal additional information and new insights.

Make the departing employee feel comfortable

As you consider when, where, and how to conduct an exit interview, focus on putting the interviewee at ease.

If you’ve opted for face-to-face (as opposed to over the phone and/or online web-based) make sure it’s one to one, not many to one.

And please, please, please ensure the location is private.  If you want honest answers you need to be able to provide a location conducive to trust.

Since employees may fear saying negative things about your clinic or its people will lead to retaliation, assure them that their answers will be kept confidential, or used only as part of an aggregate.   But only if this is your company policy.

Explaining the purpose of the exit interview can also be helpful.

By clarifying the departing employee’s responses will be used to improve your clinic, as opposed to weighing the employee’s performance or contribution to the clinic, and that you’re not on a witch hunt, you can help them relax.

Ask useful questions

When planning how to conduct an exit interview, choose your questions carefully so you get responses that will truly help your clinic improve.

You’ll want to ask specific questions about the exiting employee’s work and managers, as well as broader questions about HR issues and the clinic culture as a whole.

In addition, if the departing employee is leaving to go to a competitor clinic, you have the perfect opportunity to find out a bit about the competition.

15 Exit Interview Questions

1. What is their reason for leaving?
2. Do you feel you had opportunities for growth or promotion within this clinic?
3. How well do you believe your work was recognised and appreciated?
4. Do you feel you were given adequate training and assistance?
5. How fairly were the rosters / after hours / on call requirements distributed among you and other veterinarians / peers?
6. Working conditions and culture?
7. Workplace policies?
8. Tools and equipment?
9. How do you feel you were treated by the lead vet / your manager?
10. What did you enjoy most about working here?
11. Have you been thinking about this for a while?   What could we have done differently?
12. What was the one-thing that finally brought about your decision to leave?
13. What do you think would make this clinic a better place to work?

Obviously, it goes without saying that you’re not going to ask questions that will encourage gossiping, dobbing someone in, or revealing personal information about other employees.   Doing that will not go down well.

Rightly – so that’s exit interviews.